RATKING exist as New York's next great band. Like the Beastie Boys and Yeah Yeah Yeahs - local bands that came together as punks before developing into any sound they want - RATKING manage to mix youthful hardcore energy with pure, NY beats and rhymes in a post-hip-hop crew that could only exist in 2012. Wiki, RATKING's 18-year old frontman, grew up in Manhattan, playing Germs covers in his school music room (he has their motto NOGOD tattooed across his chest) in a band called the Homo-Thugs. At 13 he was spotted in the audience by Wu Tang's GZA and invited to come up onstage and perform, as GZA proclaimed "Wu-Tang is for the babies". A star was born. Along with MC/vocalist Hak and producers Sporting Life and Ramon, Hot Charity/XL Recordings are releasing RATKING's debut EP wiki93 (produced entirely by Sporting Life) on October 22nd in the UK & US.

The group will visit Europe for the first time in October before heading out on their first full US tour in November and December playing basement shows, skate-parks, galleries, all-ages parties and support slots, all the while putting together ideas for their self-produced debut album, set for release in 2013. They've lined up Young Guru - Jay-Z's right hand - to engineer and mix the record, making sure the music has both feet planted in hip-hop, free to explore every sonic influence (Sporting Life counts Animal Collective and Suicide among his main influences). Visually, the group take influence from New York's street culture history, working with Ari Marcopoulos, legendary photographer and filmmaker for the Beastie Boys.